Prior to hearing the term 'life load' I often used the term 'physiological load' with clients when referring to how much stress they were experiencing in life. Life load is a simple term that most people can relate to straight away. It refers to all the things happening or not happening to you in your life at the moment.
I came across the term 'life load' a couple of weeks ago from Tiina Hoffman at Firstbeat who is an Exercise Physiologist and is responsible for training international customers in Firstbeat wellbeing and performance services. Firstbeat is a leading provider of physiological analytics for sports and well-being. As a partner of Firstbeat, we transform heartbeat data into personalized information on exercise, stress and recovery to improve the productivity, performance and health or our clients.
Life load can come from various aspects of your life, for example, you could have been suffering from lower back pain for the past few weeks, not been sleeping well, as a result, started a new job and just had an argument with your husband or wife. The last straw to top off this load could be something simple like forgetting your wallet at home when you left the house. These life events add pressure or stress to the following domains of our being - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
Stress is a popular topic of discussion when it comes to employee well-being and improving health in general. I often hear people talk about stress and things that are causing them stress but I often wonder if I asked people to define stress, what would they say?
There are many definitions of stress when I type into google 'what is stress?' but to keep it simple I will just unpack the picture I created (see below).
One definition is 'stress is our response to perceived and real pressures and demands placed on us'.
When our life load is heavier or more than our body and minds resources available to cope then we experience stress.
In the picture above the different states represent the following:
Understimulated - this refers to a life state that is very comfortable and even complacent or boredom may be experienced at times. There are little to no challenge to demand on the mind and body. It can be likened to a sedentary lifestyle and lethargic energy levels, although if we look at a deeper level the sedentary lifestyle will be putting pressure on other aspects of our health. But I will keep it simple. In a nutshell, there are more resources available then there is pressure or demand to use those resources in life.
Overstimulated - this refers to a life state that is constantly switched on, wired, always having demands and feeling exhausted. In my experience, this state is where the majority of society lives now and is what is causing so many of our health problems. When the demand and pressure of life outweigh the resources readily available physically and mentally, this is what leads to burnout, absenteeism, loss of productivity, acute and chronic health conditions and much more.
Balanced/Flow - refers to a life state or moment when we experience good energy levels, concentration and ability to handle everything that life is throwing at you. When the level of challenge or demand inspires us to be fully engaged, present and experience it. This is often where individuals are most productive, creative and inspired. When teams can achieve this kind of team coherence then great results can be achieved. This flow state is characterized as STER by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal in their book 'Stealing Fire'.
Selflessness
Timelessness
Effortlessness
Richness
I don't believe that the balanced and flow state is somewhere that we live, but somewhere that we visit. Some people are able to tap into it more often and readily than others. Our ability to visit this state on a more frequent basis is what leads us to increase performance, wellbeing, productivity, creativity and our health in general.
Perhaps it is fair to say that many of us swing between the 3 different states at various different cycles and which is normal. The problems only come when we get stuck in one particular state.
How we deal with our life load ultimately depends on how well we recover and replenish our resources and energy. The constant factor in life is that we will face challenges and experience pressure and demands on us.
If you are curious to see where you sit on the life load scale, please feel to get in touch and I can chat with you more about how this can be achieved.
Thank you for reading!
